By Laura Shoopman

Today was a jam-packed day of activities! We were invited to breakfast at Heidi’s house on the outskirts of the town. Her home was lovely and had many windows to see the snow fall with a view of the village. They served sourdough pancakes, reindeer sausage, coconut chai tea lattes, bacon, fried eggs, and fresh blueberries. Every single thing served was delicious. We spent time to talk with some of the senior kids and talk about their future plans.

Grace and I went to Ninja Nick’s house to hang sheetrock over their living room. We stood on scaffolding and used a lot of equipment to hang these heavy pieces of sheetrock on the ceiling. Seeing the progress on his house was amazing, but we couldn’t help but wonder the entire process to get the necessary materials to the house. Not only do these items need to be shipped in by barge or by air, but then they need to get loaded on a vehicle and brought to the outskirts of the town where his house is located.

Some of the students shared their NYO events which is a sport just like how we have basketball and volleyball. Some of the events are: seal hop, scissor kick, two foot jump, one foot jump, and more. We were able to try if we wanted to. Michael Shanks was really good and the two foot jump!

We had a quick lunch and went to the Daniel’s house to try various Alaskan foods. We tried salmon jerky, herring eggs, pickled salmon, whale, Alaskan ice cream, and a spread for crackers. The favorites were the salmon jerky, Alaskan ice cream, and pickled salmon.

Camp today was filled with activities. It was the last day of basketball camp which was emotional, but everyone involved was happy that it happened. We loved spending time together, goofing around, and loving on each other. At the end of each camp session, we would hand out several shirts to the campers that stood out to us. By the last day, almost every single kid had a shirt!

This night, we had dinner with Able’s family and had moose spaghetti. It tasted just like regular spaghetti, but was made with moose. He was able to talk with us about the culture of the village, what it is like to hunt here, and share how the kids have felt since us being here.

After some down time, we went over to Jeff & Donna’s house on the beach for popcorn, pie, and games. Donna is known not just in the village, but throughout Alaska for her pies and they are unbelievable!!! After some family feud games, and snacks, we headed home to rest for the next day’s travel.